...and we're betting that these three men have never been to our part of Arizona. Still, as of now, we have a tenuous relationship. And it all started with the legume.The guy on the far left, the one who looks like he really, really doesn't want to be there? That's Anselmo. According to Kiva, "Anselmo is an honest, responsible and hard-working person", and Anselmo is in the business of buying and selling peanuts. He uses his peanut-profits to care for his three children in Choluteca, Honduras. Not coincidentally, Harrell loves peanuts. In that way, he is much like George Washington Carver, except that GWC spent the last two decades of his life promoting peanuts and racial harmony, whereas Harrell has mostly spent the last two decades of his life, just eating peanuts.Harrell has done a few other things -- get married, make babies, write, build a life -- but he has devoted a significant portion of the last 20 years to eating peanuts. Oh, and he's in favor of racial harmony.So, when we decided to make a new Kiva loan, he wanted to focus on someone male (this will be our eighth and we are gender-unbalanced, according to our Kiva portfolio), someone who was smiling (many of the Kiva recipients are sour-faced), and someone working in peanuts. It took some searching and we had to abandon the "smiling" requirement, but we finally found Anselmo and the G.s. Guasaule N #5 Group.

In order to lend our cash to the peanut vendor, we had to offer a loan to his compatriots as well. The guy in the middle, the one who looks like he's ready to run? That's Walter. He could, presumably, care less about peanuts. He's in the business of buying and selling seeds.The fellow in the far right? He's Angel. Angel buys and sells chickens. Just by looking at him, you have to doubt if he's a peanut lover.Working as a group, each man receives an individual loan but all three of them provide support to one another.There's also a little peer pressure going -- "Hey, Anselmo, you pay off your Kiva loan yet?" "Walter, not yet. What do you want? I'm working for peanuts!" -- but, at the end of the day, they're on their own. We hope they do well. We only wish at least one of them looked happy in the photo.Quote of the day:"Success is for creeps. We already reward narcissism way too much in our culture, so what I’m going to tell you guys is, do what makes you happy and be nice." -- Bobcat Goldthwait

Leave a Reply.

Come on in! This

is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

Renée & Harrell

It's about time you got here.

We aren't kidding about the wine.This is where we talk about writing... ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.